Improvement in uniting iron and steel for the manufacture of railroad-rails



W. BATTY.

Refining Iron and Steel,

Patented Aug. 7, 1866.

Inventor,

I Witn esse s= QR;

A PHOTO LITHO (20 NY (OSBORNE'S PROCESS) TENT OFFICEQ 1 i WILLIAM BATTY, OF TROY, YORK.

IMPROVEMENTlN UNITING IRON A NDSTEEL FOR THE MANUFACTURE 0F RAILROAD-RAILS.

Specification formingpart of Letters Patent No. 57,059, dated August '7, 1866 ings, which are hereby declared to be a part of this specification,

Myinveution relates towrought-iron rails with steelheads or faces. Heretofore attem pts have been made to manufacture rails of wroughtiron with a head or face of steel; but that object was never successfully accomplished, as it was found that the iron and steel would not weld or adhere sufliciently to prevent the steel face from being loosened by the weight and friction of the cars when in actual use, and the same, when so loosened, was not only useless but dangerous. I

The purpose of my improved process is to obviate this difficulty and toproduce an iron rail with a steel face, in which the steel is per feotly welded to the iron, so that there is no possibility of loosening or slipping.

It consists in the employmentof a compound of borazg, sal-ammoniac, comingn salt, potash,

and WE promote the perfect welding of the iron and steel, substantially as hereinafter described and set forth.

Having set forth the general nature of my said invention, and to enable others skilled in the art to'which it relates to use the same, I

will proceed to describe my improved process, i

above mentioned. This plate may be of puddled steel or Bessemer metal.

aa a are ridges at the sides and in the middle of the said steel plate, and hit are smaller ridges, while 0 c are grooves in the steel between the ridges. This steel plate forms the bottom of the pile, and upon it I place the wroughtiron which forms the bottom and web of the rail. These may consist of rollediron plates or of old rails or other pieces of wrought-iron, which may be placed in the pile and rolled as in manufacturing the common rail. The pile so prepared is then taken to the heating-furnace and heated in the usual mannor. For the purpose of promoting the adhesion of the iron and steel plates and causing them to form a perfect weld, I use a compound or mixture of four parts, by weight, each of borax, sal-ammoniac, and common salt, with one part each of potash and chareoal,all powdered and thoroughly mixed and combined. At the moment when the pile is sufficiently heated and is about to be taken out ofthe furnace I throw about two ounces of the above mixture into the grooves c c of the steel plate B, which acts as a flux and enables the steel and iron, when pressed together in the rolls, to adhere and weld in the most complete and perfect manner.

After the application of the mixture, as above stated, the pile is removed from the furnace and passed through the rollers in the usual manner of making wrought-iron rails. The different stages of this process are shown in Figs. 2 to 11, inclusive, but it does not need a more particular description than there shown.

The pressure of the rolls forces the soft iron into the grooves and around the ridges of the steel, and causes the completed rail to assume l the form substantially shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The outside ridges, act, of the steel plate B lap down on both sides of the iron web A of the rail, and the smaller ridges h h are forced into the substance of the iron, while the par ticles of the steel and iron adhere with the greatest possible force.

In a rail made by my process the steel face will not slip or loosen by any amount of use,

and itis found that the steel and iron cannot be separated, even by the application of suffioient force to break the rail. They are equally durable with rails madeentirely of steel, and

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set I my hand this 2d day of June, A. D. 1866.

hi WILLIAM BA'ITY.

m ark.

Witnesses C ARLES D. KELLUM, R. W. REILLE. 

